Success for Southampton engineers in the IMechE Design Challenge Wessex Region competition

Southampton Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering students competed in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Design Challenge Wessex Region Competition on 23 March 2022.

This year’s IMechE Design Challenge for first-year students was to design, build and test a Line Launcher. Working with Diogo Montalvao, Wessex Region Design Challenge Chair, the School of Engineering hosted the competition with five visiting teams from the University of Portsmouth, Bournemouth University and Solent University.

Each team prepared CAD designs, posters, costings and presentations and their devices were scrutineered against competition rules. Judging was led by Professor Ben Hodgkinson, Technical Director at Red Bull Powertrains and Chair of the Design Challenge Steering Committee.

The University entered two teams: Team Sinclair and Team Richardson. Team Sinclair came 2nd in the overall challenge with their development of ‘a crossbow named Ian’, following some unlucky bounces off the target. Team Richardson came 3rd in the overall challenge, after winning the Poster and Presentation competition categories.

One team member said, “Even though our launcher broke on the first shot, the rest of the day was really fun, and I’m glad my team got as far as we did. It was also really interesting to have so many people from industry there.” A visiting team from Bournemouth University came in first place with an impressively consistent and robust competition entry.

Tim Woolman, Design Service Experimental Officer in the School of Engineering, said “Thanks to the IMechE and support from School of Engineering colleagues, all teams’ experience of the challenge has developed their design skills and teamwork, and will no doubt support a variety of future ambitions.”